A million
thanks to the generous and addictive Best American Poetry Blog for
accommodating this entry in the web-project The Next Big Thing,
and many thanks to Sharon Dolin for inviting my participation. You can find her
entry at: http://www.sharondolin.com/the-next-big-thing/ . I made the grueling decision to make this
the stub of one of the Thing’s tentacles, once I learned what you, the reader,
were in for. Apologies to those whose
wont it is still to play.
Q: What
is your working title of your book?
A: Monte
Green’s Place.
Q: Where
did the idea come from for the book?
A: Monte
Green’s words are so familiar – and haunting – to any hearing-enabled person
(and so little has been done with his odd vernacular, which cobbles together
many strains, the dominant ones being Anglo-Saxon and Latin), that it seemed a
rich diction to plunder.
Q: What
genre does your book fall under?
A: It’s a
hybrid translation.
Q: Which
actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
A: Monte? Jackie Gleason, if he was still with us. Since not, Paul Dano. He would also play the misunderstood love
interest, Paulette Noh.
Q: What
is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A: Language
as object fails us; there is no greater illustration than Green’s life story.
Q: Will
your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
A: Neither
– it’s under contract, sans agent.
Q: How
long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
A: Given
that this is the Next Big Thing and not the Last, I am still in first draft so
no telling.
Q: What
other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
A: Peter
Reading’s Marred Fan. David Ives’ Haul in the Tithing.
Q: Who or
what inspired you to write this book?
A: Wasn’t
this your first question?
Q: What
else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
A: It
exposes the underbelly and the tragedy of the flim-flam known as the “telephone
game.”
(Ed note: Susan Wheeler's most recent book of poetry is Meme (University of Iowa Press, October 2012). You can find out more about Susan here. — sdh)